Some years ago, Norman wished that we conduct a tech talk with a real architect to get the real feel of what an architect does. Well, we never did that, but there's something (actually, a lot) you can learn from Singaporean architecture related to software engineering.

Right now I'm talking about a facade. I'm sure you all have heard or used this pattern. I've heard this once, and then again recently. Both are bad design, IMO. In both design, a business facade is merely a middleman between web service and O/RM. The facade was doing nothing other than being another layer of indirection (which is bad, if done overly). Imagine something like this:

Object has a collection of ObjectB which needs to be populated on load (eager-loading). Every time an Object is retrieved from the web service, the client will need to call the second web service (that retrieves the collection of ObjectB). All calls made by the web service could've gone directly to O/RM, but in this case, we add another layer between them. We don't need it.

So what's a facade, anyway?

An example of a very distinctive facade is an old cinema redeveloped just downtown Singapore.

This is The Cathay. You can find the history of the building on Wikipedia, this is not a history blog.

Back to the topic, you can see the brown, art-deco style part on the center, this is called the facade of the building. It's the front face of the building, covering the massive construction behind it. The idea of a facade is an indirection so that you don't need to deal with the complexity of logic. Security check on the facade doors, for example, will almost screen all visitor to the building.

Taking the analogy to software engineering, a facade should hide the complexity of the logic, too. Fixing the diagram above, it should look like this:

Now, the client will only need to call one web service to retrieve Object and all related ObjectB. The facade becomes a composition orchestrator. The facade have the knowledge of what objects required when retrieving another object, the facade have the knowledge of how to retrieve it, too. A facade can call more than one O/RM function, can include logic, but should not call another facade function.

Now that you know have learnt a good facade by example of a physical building architecture, I invite you to start using this analogy when creating a facade. Please save us, developers, from the need of writing a useless middleman code. Thank you.

Banyak orang hanya perhatian pada benar atau tidaknya suatu hal, dan tidak disertai dengan pantas atau tidaknya hal tersebut dilakukan. Antara benar dan pantas memang dua hal yang hampir sama, tapi sepenuhnya berbeda.

Benar, berbicara tentang 1 atau 0. Mutlak, antara benar atau salah (jangan dibawa ke ranah pentafsiran agama). Benar tidak ini mengacu aturan yang umum, naluriah, sunnatullah, standard operating procedure (SOP) atau bahasa hukum. Jelas dan rigid, karena hampir semuanya mempunyai ‘aturan’ yang membuat sesuatu tindakan yang dalam lingkup aturan bisa tersebut ditimpakan kepadanya benar atau salah.

Sedangkan pantas, lebih berbicara tentang etika, ukuran kepantasan. Bagaimana kita mengukur pantas tidaknya sebuah tindakan? Memang semuanya bisa kembli dalam standar norma masing-masing individu, tapi akan selalu ada hal yang umum atau pedoman. Baik yang paling jelas dibandingkan dengan kondisi sosial lingkungan di sekitarnya atau yang paling jujur hati nurani manusia.

Dalam lingkungan negara, kelakuan pejabat (dan wakil rakyat) yang menggunakan fasilitas negara untuk kepentingan pribadi atau kelompok bisa saja ditimpakan benar, untuk menunjang kerja kedinasan. Namun itu akan berada di jalur ketidakpantasan bila jumlah dan frekuensinya di luar batas kewajaran. Batas wajar bagi pejabat publik tentu kondisi umum masyarakat yang dipimpinnya. Apakah layak jika pejabat bergaya mewah sedangkan rakyatnya hidup dalam keterbatasan?

Dalam lingkungan perusahaan, kepantasan seorang karyawan dalam hal menggunakan fasilitas. Contoh sederhana, menggunakan taksi untuk perjalanan Cengkareng-Bandung memang diperbolehkan, tapi rasa-rasanya itu kurang pantas karena bisa menggunakan travel yang masih juga nyaman dan safety (bukan bus umum). Tapi hal itu masih saja lebih baik, dibandingkan berbohong tentang nominal taksi itu sendiri. Atas nama pengorbanan atau apapun karena justru paling mendasar pada wilayah benar saah. Silahkan tanya ke hati nurani sendiri (atau hati nurani rekan jika diri sendiri tidak berani), apakah hal itu dibenarkan?

Dalam Islam, kebenaran adan kepantasan menggunakan istilah benar (halal) dan baik (ahsan). Makan tidak hanya butuh makanan yang halal, tapi juga thoyyib (baik) yang menyehatkan, dan wajar/pantas. Naik haji memang halal dan sangat dianjurkan bagi yang telah mampu, tapi naik haji bagi orang yang sudah pernah haji atau pernikahan yang melebihi kemampuan, mungkin akan lebih baik jika dananya digunakan untuk hal-hal yang lebih manfaat lainnya.

Lalu, bagaimana untuk bisa mengukur diri sendiri tentang benar dan pantas ini? Menurut saya jawabanya sederhana, mari membuka mata hati nurani kita. Hati nurani kita semua seperti cermin bersih yang akan ada kotoran penutup jika tidak sering dibersihkan. Jika cermin itu sudah penuh debu, maka pantulan dari cermin itupun tidak akan sempurna lagi. Nurani kita tidak bisa lagi membedakan kepantasan atau parahnya lagi sudah tidak bisa membedakan benar salah.

Cermin nurani itu bisa dibersihkan kalau menurut nasehat Islam diantaranya dengan tiga cara sederhana yaitu menengok kehidupan fakir miskin (yang hidupnya lebih susah), melayat orang meninggal, dan berkumpul dengan orang sholeh. Dan cermin hati nurani adalah bahasa universal, yang secara umum sama pada siapapun orangnya, agama atau kepercayaannya.

Karena cermin itu selayaknya bersih, sekalipun tidak bisa menjadi sungguh-sungguh bersih seperti terlahir kembali. Tapi manusia bisa berusaha, dan meminta kepada Sang Maha Pencipta untuk membuat cermin itu tetap terjaga.

Wallahu’alam..

Having studied the subject amongst ergonomic subject in my dear college time, i wasn't realized of the real danger and the prevalence of this disease. I'd bumped into those having treatment for such pain, but haven't really had it on top of my head until a week ago a dearest colleague having had to get a full bed rest for almost 2 weeks due to...Back pain.

It's not mere sprained muscle in your back easily alleviated using Salonpas!. It's much more severe than that. It involves the most fragile yet the most important and complex part of our body. Of course! all our senses are hubbed in this elongated lumbar of ours...a single click could mean thousands of nervous jammed. It's the part that keeps our brain-un-scattered, have it integrated to all of our limbs.

After discussing w/ some fellows. I've heard many many many stories of back pain occurring to them, and their relatives and friends. I was not expecting it.

The numbers are staggering: There’s an 80 percent chance that, at some point in your life, you’ll suffer from severe back pain.

Wheeww!! Hell that's such an occurrence, 80%! but then, H o w w e a r e s o f r a g i l e!! Anyway, After several doctor visit and MRI scan, my colleague recognized that some of her disks got broken, in this case, either bulging, protruding, or herniated disks. I wouldn't ask for more detail at that time I asked, though..This case of broken disks occured to 90% of back pain occurance. Having the image of gum leaking outside its borrows screech my teeth. *sigh

It is true to say that the prevalence is getting higher as degeneration occurs in aging people. True. But some of my friends are already having the problem. I'm talking about my twenty-something friends! Hm... What makes this disease is more diffused to more and more young people nowadays?

1. Of course, the way we work nowadays.9 to 5 sitting in front of the computer,our lumbar disks would get pressure, agitated by the awkward posture we sometimes, or mostly pose. Or perhaps you should contact Health and Safety department of your office, having them change your chair to a more back-friendly version.
   
2. You might listen that Cameron Diaz truly digs high heels as they make her thigh leaner. But girls, beauty is pain sometimes! High heels also make this pressure on back disks more severe.
   
3. What else? post-labor mummies are also prone to this. It's said that according to Chinese tradition, new mums are supposed to stay on bed for few weeks to gain strength to their back, after laboring.
   
4. And daddies? lifting sofas might give you a kick in the back, daddy. Be careful..
   
5. Humm Don't We just LOVE MSG!! That devilish Monosodium Glutamat, feels so yummy but do you know that it make your nervous system rigid and less flexible, and hence makes you more prone to nervous system disorder, twitched between the disks of your back, for instance. T_T
   

One suspicious idea is that this disease is in fact not purely physical. As complex as it was hubbed to our neuron system and brain, some says that sometimes It’s a problem suited for psychologists and neuroscientists, not surgeons. 90% prevalence is that the pain is temporal and the broken disk would alleviate itself after 7 weeks and the patient can go back to their daily life. in 10% it would get worse and more chronic. So, having said the hypothesis, maybe only with the power of mind, about how you perceive the pain, you slain the demon.

Hopefully, having acknowledge he danger and our proneness to this disease would increase our awareness, and hopefully would trigger our prevention act avoiding the same. Sport would certainly help. The most effective perhaps Yoga Pilates...the one that makes you 'fe e l t h e l o o n g o f y o u r b a c k ....' as you heal in and out posing eloquently in cobra-pose... heard that this kind of yoga is focusing on our bones, making our lumbar more energized one time and another,.... or running, swimming and aerobic that it increases the density of your bone..., and adding more back stroke surely would strengthen the muscle of your back, which is equally important as it protects the disks of you lumbar...as buffer to shocks and resistants...

Anyway the ultimate is to know the limit of, to care and appreciate what He has given you out of this precious brief life of ours.....our Body, Brain, and what connects them all, our Back.